This invention relates to methods, apparatuses, and devices for treating skin and proximal tissue layers (e.g., such as fat, muscle, and facial SMAS (superficial muscular aponeurotic system)), such as skin tightening, or for treating diseases, disorders, and conditions that would benefit from tissue area or volume reduction, skin restoration, skin tightening, skin lifting, or skin repositioning, or tattoo removal.
Many human health issues arise from the damage or loss of tissue due to disease, advanced age, and/or injury. In aesthetic medicine, elimination of excess tissue and/or skin laxity is an important concern that affects more than 25% of the U.S. population. Conventional surgical therapies (e.g., a face lift, brow lift, or breast lift) can be effective but are often invasive, inconvenient, and expensive, while scarring limits the applicability of surgery to certain treatment sites.
Although minimally invasive methods are available, such methods are generally less effective than surgical methods. Methods using energy sources (e.g., laser, non-coherent light, radiofrequency, or ultrasound) can be effective at improving the architecture and the texture of the skin but are much less effective at tightening the skin or reducing skin laxity. Neurotoxins, such as botulinum toxin, reduce the formation of dynamic wrinkles by paralysis of the injected muscles, but such toxins have minimal or no direct effect on skin tightness or laxity. Finally, dermal fillers, such as hyaluronic acid, are injected in the dermal layer to smooth out wrinkles and improve contours, but such fillers do not directly tighten or reduce laxity of the skin. Thus, surgical therapies remain the gold standard for lifting and/or tightening skin, as compared to energy-based techniques (e.g., with laser, radiofrequency, or ultrasound ablation) and injection-based techniques (e.g., with botulinum toxin or hyaluronic acid- or collagen-based fillers).
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and devices that increase the effectiveness of minimally-invasive techniques while maintaining convenience, affordability, and/or accessibility to patients desiring tissue restoration.